In wired or wireless communication, a terminal may need to perform access authentication with an authentication server using an access controller when the terminal is to be connected to a local area network. Because a processing capability of the access controller is limited, the access controller may be overloaded when a relatively large quantity of terminals perform access authentication simultaneously.
To prevent overload, the access controller may restrict a rate of a received authentication packet. For example, the access controller presets a rate of a received authentication packet to x, and discards another authentication packet that arrives when a total rate at which authentication packets of terminals are received reaches x. An authentication process of a terminal that sends the discarded authentication packet is interrupted. The terminal whose authentication process is interrupted may restart access authentication.
Authentication processes of a large quantity of terminals are interrupted if terminals that perform authentication are excessively concentrated within a period of time. The terminals whose authentication processes are interrupted may immediately restart authentication, and a rate of authentication packets is still very high. The situation in which a large quantity of terminals perform authentication in a concentrated manner continues, and interaction processes of other terminals are interrupted. This process repeats continuously, finally causing almost all users to be incapable of completing an entire authentication process. The foregoing phenomenon is called an avalanche effect of authentication, which affects system authentication efficiency.